NHL: Roadtrip return could also feature Hartnell reappearance

PITTSBURGH — The Flyers were going to try to avenge their season-opening loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins Wednesday night, then collect enough energy to stay with the Florida Panthers tonight at Wells Fargo Center. After that ... you wouldn’t blame them for taking a long, deep breath.

After that Panthers game, the Flyers will have played 19 games, with 12 of them on the road. Overall, they have also had to deal with back-to-back games five times over this first furious month of a 48-game season.

“It’s been a lot of time away from home; it’s been a lot of games on a lot of nights,” Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said. “But getting back home, knowing the schedule sets up in our favor, and knowing that you may start to see guys on the ice that haven’t been on the ice due to injury, all of that sets up as a positive.”

Just prior to their game against the Penguins, the Flyers announced something that felt positive, indeed — Scott Hartnell had just been cleared for practice and was estimated as being 7-10 days away from being game ready.

Hartnell might not want to wait that long.

In an interview on a morning sports talk show on WPEN-FM (97.5 The Fanatic) Wednesday and later transcribed for the station website, Hartnell indicated two good practices or so is all he needs.

“A couple of practices to feel comfortable with hitting, battling, things like that,” Hartnell said. “I’ve been skating since maybe Sunday, so I’ve had a few days to practice, but nothing like a game situation. I definitely don’t feel comfortable enough with that broken wheel to get out there and battle, so hopefully I’ll play early next week.”

By then, perhaps his teammates will have stopped their inconsistent ways that, even with a 7-0 win at the New York Islanders Monday, created an unsatisfactory 7-9-1 start to the season. To veteran Kimmo Timonen, there’s only one way to do that — keep spinning the skates.

“I don’t want to put any more pressure on our forwards, but when they work and they forecheck, we win games,” Timonen said. “They were awesome in Long Island ... I think that’s the level we have to find. When we skate (like that), we’re a really good team. And when we don’t, there are breakdowns and turnovers and we’re not creating much offense. So to me, it comes down to work ethic and doing the system.

“Our system is skating hard, forechecking hard,” Timonen added. “That’s what we did on Long Island and that’s what we have to do (every night).”

Considering the schedule and a slight system shift that mandates so much aggressive skating, Timonen knows it’s a lot to ask of even a team with mostly young legs.

“Obviously we played a lot of road games and back-to-back games and that’s hard, especially when you have to work like our forwards do,” Timonen said. “But it’s going to be easier coming up. We have a lot of home games and not as many back to backs. Everybody goes through that during a season, but we’re almost done with it now. Hopefully we can build off that and go from there.”

NOTESDefenseman Kurtis Foster, a scratch for three straight games, wasn’t even present at the morning skate in Pittsburgh. But Foster isn’t hurt, just happy — he had to stay home to be with wife, Stephanie, who gave birth to the couple’s second child Tuesday. Son Charles John Foster weighed in at just under 8 pounds. ... Speaking of defensemen, former Flyer (and Penguin) Mark Eaton, a native of Wilmington, Del., is sort of back with the Penguins. After playing six games with AHL Wilkes-Barre, Eaton, an unrestricted free agent, was told to show up Wednesday to practice with the big club. What Eaton professed to not know is that the minor-league Pens had officially released him, and he practiced with the big club while not being under contract. Told that, Eaton said he trusted his agent, then added, “I’ll play for free ... but I don’t know if that’s allowed.”